Gerstenslager enters into venture with Tooling Solutions

Published: February 23, 2012 4:08AM

By JEFF CANNING
Staff Writer
WOOSTER -- In May, The Gerstenslager Co. announced the creation of the newest endeavor in the company's more than 150-year history as it entered into a new joint venture with International Tooling Solutions, based in Grand Rapids, Mich.
The two companies came together to create ArtiFlex Manufacturing in order to better provide for their customers' needs. Gerstenslager and ITS had been working and co-marketing products together for more than a year prior to the official joining.
ArtiFlex Chief Executive Officer Erin Hoffmann has been pleased to see the new company come together so well and so quickly.
"It's had a big, positive impact in terms of the marketplace and our ability to execute a complete vertically integrated solution for concept tooling all the way through production," Hoffmann said. " What was two separate offers is now a combined solution. This has been very good for our teams and customers."
With any significant change comes a transition period as managers and employers grow accustomed to changing operations. But Hoffmann has been extremely pleased with employees so far who have worked to make the change as seamless as possible.
"Our leadership team did an excellent job for the roll-out of the combined companies and the integration has gone really well," Hoffmann said. "As ArtiFlex, we're spread out across three states, five locations and have 600-700 people so the challenge to keep them up to date on everything that is going on is difficult ... We're very fortunate to have a high quality workforce that really understands the challenge and is willing to work hard at improving operations."
Now nearing the end of the transition period, Hoffmann believes the partnership is off to a roaring start. Sales have been tremendous and the company is growing rapidly through an expanding share of the marketplace.
The success in the business has translated to numerous job opportunities at all of their locations, Wooster perhaps seeing the greatest increase. So far, the Wooster location has added about 50 full-time job positions with 18 of those coming just before New Year's Day. Numerous other workers are also being employed through temporary staffing agencies in an amount Hoffmann calls "substantial."
"We're going to continue to bring people on as full-time team members as we get a good feel for the long-term outlook," Hoffmann said. "You don't want to hire a bunch of people and see the economy dip down again where we're all cutting back. We've been pretty disciplined but I see that trend continuing. Highly skilled, unskilled and management. It's going to be across the board."
Mergers and other business acquisitions frequently bring uncertainty as far as where the company may go with closing locations or consolidating operations. But Hoffmann said those have not been discussed at all as all of the locations are operating at higher levels at the moment.
The Wooster Gerstenslager location is by far the largest facility of the group and stands to be an integral player as the company moves forward.
"Wooster is key. Wooster is our largest site, has the largest number of people, has our greatest production capacity and our location with the greatest number of resources to draw from to help us meet our growth plans," Hoffmann said. "In terms of actual dollars, Wooster is poised to see the greatest overall sales growth ... The future looks bright."
Reporter Jeff Canning can be reached at 330-287-1632 or jcanning@the-daily-record.com.